The Face Machine Nodes

THE FACE MACHINE NODES

User Rig Nodes for The Face Machine

Download The Face Machine Nodes, and Animate!

The Face Machine Nodes is a freely distributed plug-in for Maya that will supply you with all the custom rigging nodes we’ve written for use with our own rigging tools. The Face Machine Nodes allows you to animate with a rig built with The Face Machine even if you don’t already own TFM.

What this means is that only the animator or TD creating a rig needs to have a licensed copy of our rigging products while ANY animator who wishes to use the rig for animation only needs a copy of The Face Machine Nodes.

TSM rigs currently use only native Maya nodes and do not require The Face Machine Nodes.

FAQ

When loading The Face Machine Nodes, I get a specific error: "// Error: Unable to dynamically load : C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya###/bin/plug-ins/TSM2.mll The specified module could not be found". What should I do?

You need msvcp71.dll, which is usually present but occasionally mysteriously missing. It can be downloaded for free from several websites which are easily found by Google searching for "msvcp71.dll". Once you have the file, there are two places you can put it in order to fix the problem:

A. -- In C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya###\bin\ which fixes the problem just for Maya

or

B. -- In C:\WINDOWS\system32\ which fixes this problem for every application on your computer, since there are often other applications that require this DLL file. We usually recommend this option, unless you don't want to touch the WINDOWS directory in which case the Maya/bin directory will work fine.

Do I need The Face Machine Nodes to use The Face Machine?

No, The Face Machine contains everything you need to rig and animate a face. The Nodes are only needed if you intend to open a TFM rig with a copy of Maya that does not have TFM installed. Since, quite often, a character rigged by an artist is later used by many animators during a production, we feel it's important to allow the same powerful rig controls to anyone working with a TFM facial rig.

Are The Face Machine Nodes freely distributable?

Yes. In fact, we encourage you to share it with anyone you like. Everyone should be able to benefit from working with faces rigged with The Face Machine.

Do The Face Machine Nodes allow me to use the face selection interface that comes with TFM?

Yes, The Face Machine Nodes let you use all of a TFM rig's features. That includes the selection map, box controls, and pose save/recall. For more information regarding these features visit The Face Machine page or take a look at the TFM manual

What happens if I try to open a TFM rig in a copy of Maya that does not have either TFM or The Face Machine Rig Nodes installed?

Unfortunately, Maya will crash. At the moment, this is due to the way Maya evaluates the absence of a node. We are currently working with Autodesk to fix this issue or find a workaround for our future releases.